7 Tips on How to Make Anyone Look Good in Photos (VIDEO)

We’ve shared quite a few videos recently on how to effectively pose people in photos and they’ve proved to be quite popular. So, here’s another one with a slightly different spin on posing we think will help you out on your next portrait shoot.

It’s from Pierre T. Lambert who recently posted two excellent videos on street photography (you can see them here and here.) The below video is titled “How to Pose – 7 Tips to Instantly Make Anyone Look Good on Camera.”

Here’s what Lambert has to say about the clip, which he notes could also be called “How to make you and your friends look good in photos. How to pose people who are not models.”

“First of all, let's remember when you take photos of people your goal is to capture their best self,” Lambert says. “Which means you need to bring it out. Some people are natural at posing for photos, most of us are not at all! So here are the tips:

#1 - Whatever is closest to your camera is biggest - it's even more accentuated with a wide-angle lens. So, make sure you don't put the wrong body part first. Use it to make people look good. (ex. bigger body parts further from the camera)

#2 - For women you most likely want to bring out their S curve - looks very feminine and slims people. To do so, simply tell women to put their weight on their back leg (in reference to the camera). This simple trick changes everything.

#3 - For posing men: ask them to get busy with their hands. Hands in pocket, jacket, chin etc... looks better than with arms hanging on the side.

#4 - Stand tall - imagine you're being held by a string from the crown of your head. Will make you look stronger, more confident & taller on photos.

#5 - Chin forward and down to get rid of the double chin / too much skin.

#6 - Get people moving - ask for people to move in your shots to create dynamism and a more lifestyle-ish natural look. Also helps people who are not comfortable in front of the camera.

#7 - Have fun - seriously - have fun with the people you shoot - your shots will bring out people's personality.”

You can see more of Lambert’s helpful photography tutorials on his YouTube channel. And here are two other portrait photography videos with posing tips we have featured on Shutterbug recently: